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Ideally someone who will treat the box with respect(!)/ who is good for this, pricing and insured?
Yodel.
Yodel? They've reformed have they?!?
Senditnow.com. Never had any issues with them
I've just used Paisley freight and it came to £23 which covers bikes up to 30kg. They seem fast and efficient but do require the bike to be in a proper bike box (see LBS!)
How far does it need to go?
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^^^^ New Yodel delivery service ^^^^
Recently sold a couple of frames on eBay and also sent/return posted a frame to The Seatpost Man using MyHermes. Were packaged in cardboard bike retail boxes and the rear dropouts braced, padded them out with bubble wrap and some newspaper. Everything went smoothly, no damage done.
Have Hermes increased their parcel size allowed then or have you just got lucky?
A year ago 29er wheels boxed was too big for the size they allowed.
Not sure what parcel size you mean as they seem to be done on weight up to a max dimension which I can't remember off the top of my head. Posting a frameset weighing user 5 kilos inc. box (which is bigger than a set of 29er wheels) cost around 8.50, more for insurance though. Best thing to do is box the bike up and check their prices- weigh the box on a kitchen scale to check it's in the right price band.
I'd say you got lucky they didn't check up on the size then!
Max length 120cm + the girth = 225cm or less.